Chandigarh, April 22, 2021
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has demanded the immediate resignation of Punjab Food and Civil Supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, for failing to stop the smuggling of wheat from other states and for non-procurement of wheat and shortage of gunny bags (bardana) in the Punjab mandis. In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Thursday, AAP MLA and Kisan Wing president Kultar Singh Sandhwan alleged that Cabinet Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu had failed in his departmental responsibilities; therefore Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh should dismiss such person, who has failed, from the post of minister.
He said that the world knows that Punjab is an agriculture-oriented state and after six months, the farmers come to the mandis of the state to sell their produce. “It is the responsibility of the Punjab government’s department of Food and Civil Supplies to ensure timely and efficient procurement and payment of the crop arriving in the mandis,” he added. Sandhwan said that since the commencement of procurement of wheat in the mandis of the state, only about 50 per cent of the crop has reached the mandis, out of which about 60 per cent of the crop is in the mandis due to shortage of gunny bags and secondly the wheat purchased was not being reaped. “Due to this, there are stockpiles of wheat in the mandis of the state and the weighing work has come to a standstill on the arrival of wheat,” he said.
Sandhwan alleged that even the shortage of gunny bags seemed to be a pretense of buying bags from Congress factories. He said that the inclement weather had also added to the worries of the farmers as due to rain in many parts of the state, the mandis were flooded and the wheat of the farmers was damaged. Sandhwan said that it was the responsibility of the state minister to provide necessary bardana and other facilities in the mandis before the arrival of wheat, which he did not do. He alleged that the smuggling of wheat from other states to Punjab was continuing as Congress party leaders were involved in this smuggling business.
The AAP leader further said that despite the orders of the state government, trucks full of wheat were coming to Punjab every day, with which the wheat smugglers were filling their pockets and causing economic loss to the farmers of Punjab. Sandhwan said that on the one hand, the aggrieved farmers in the mandis of the state were fighting against the black laws of the Centre and on the other hand they were forced to stage protest on the streets against the Punjab government. “The irony today is that the BJP government at the Centre and the Congress government in Punjab are forcing farmers to take to the streets,” he added. Sandhwan demanded from the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh that minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who had forced the farmers to tramp in the mandis should be immediately removed from the Cabinet.
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